Did Gregor Townsend get it wrong making Sione Tuipulotu captain?
What about the absence of free-scoring hooker Johnny Matthews?
Our panel can’t agree but there’s one thing they are sure of: Scotland need at least three wins from four this Autumn.
Would you have selected Sione Tuipulotu over Finn Russell for the captaincy?
Calum Crowe: The real issue here isn’t the identity of any one person who is chosen as captain. In the bigger picture, the more troubling aspect of this is that Townsend keeps flip-flopping between captains.
Finn Russell and Rory Darge led the team during the Six Nations earlier this year. At the World Cup last year, it was Jamie Ritchie. Prior to that, it was Stuart Hogg. Before him, Greig Laidlaw and Stuart McInally.
The list of players to have captained Scotland under Townsend is extensive. That does nothing to help stability. He can talk all he wants about growing the leadership group. That’s just management-speak. It also devalues the captaincy if it is constantly passed around every six months or so. Pick a player and stick with them.
Jason White: No, I would not, but I am really conscious of being on the outside and not being privy to what happens behind the scenes. There a number of benefits to Sione having the skipper’s armband; Finn can concentrate on running the backs and focus on getting the best out of himself, it deepens the leadership pool and will give the coaches more information for the 2025 Six Nations on whether Sione, Finn, Rory or Jamie are best placed to lead the team.
Andy Nicol: Yes. Finn doesn’t need the added pressure of captaincy when he is the natural leader on the pitch anyway. He determines the tactics, the pace of the game, how much kicking they do, so let him do that and allow Sione to lead the team. This is something he has done very well for the Warriors and his performances have gone through the roof. Having the captain right next to the playmaker on the pitch is a good thing and they will work well together.
Do you agree with the decision to exclude Glasgow Warriors’ free-scoring hooker Johnny Matthews from the Scotland squad?
CC: No. I’ve been banging the drum for the past two or three years that Matthews deserves greater recognition with Scotland. Not just in terms of all the tries he has scored with Glasgow Warriors, but also due to his work elsewhere in the loose. He’s a terrific athlete who has an incredible burst of pace for a front-row forward. Marry that to his incredible try-scoring rate and you have a player who offers a real point of difference.
Glasgow’s lineout maul has been incredible over these past couple of years, probably the most potent weapon in all of the URC. Matthews is a key part of that. Scotland are missing a trick by not looking to incorporate as many elements of it as possible.
JW: One hundred per cent, I would have picked Johnny in the squad. His form for Glasgow has been outstanding and he has the unbelievable knack of finding the try line so often. As we saw recently, he scores them from the back of mauls but also gets on the end of team tries. The perfect player to have on the bench and come on and make an impact.
AN: This is a tough one because it is too easy to look at the incredible amount of tries that he has scored and think he’s a shoo-in. If he was a winger, when scoring tries is pretty much your number one job, then he would be in but there is so much more to being a hooker than scoring tries. Gregor Townsend and his coaches will have analysed all the options in all aspects of being a hooker, with lineout throwing and scrummaging right at the top of their list, and come to the conclusion that the other hookers deserve selection ahead of Matthews.
What do you think of Jonny Gray’s decision to turn down a call-up?
CC: There’s a slight sense of déjà vu here when you consider what happened with Jonny’s brother, Richie, when he moved to France earlier in his career. The elder of the two Gray brothers went through a period of international exile for several years due to a combination of fitness issues and non-selection.
Jonny is coming off the back of a serious injury which saw him play no competitive rugby for over a year. But he’s fit again and is playing well for Bordeaux in France. Surely he should be chomping at the bit to get back playing for his country?
You could sense Townsend’s frustration when he spoke about it at his squad announcement. Scotland need Jonny Gray. His older brother is now out of the picture. Grant Gilchrist is 34 years of age. We don’t have an abundance of locks. For me, it’s a poor call.
JW: I can see both sides of the argument. Gregor wants his best players available but Jonny needs to prioritise himself and repay the faith that his club have shown in him.
By all accounts the last 16-18 months have been really challenging for Jonny. His form at the moment in the Top 14 has been top drawer and the rest will do him good. If he is involved in the Six Nations and Scotland go well, he has a chance of being called up for the Lions. He has been a brilliant player for Scotland and hopefully we will see him back in blue in 2025.
AN: There clearly has been pressure from the club for Jonny not to travel and this will have been really tough for him. The club that pays his wages and has backed him following his serious injury has said they want him to rest over the coming weeks. What do you do if you are Jonny? Go against the wishes of your employer? I feel for him but I am sure he will be back for the Six Nations.
Who are you excited about seeing for Scotland in the Autumn Test series?
CC: Blair Kinghorn. He has taken his game to a new level since moving to Toulouse in France last year and is now a Champions Cup winner. On current form, I think he’s in with a decent chance of starting at full-back for the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia next year. The days of Scotland trying to utilise him as a fly-half are now, mercifully, at an end. That did nothing for Kinghorn’s confidence, when Townsend insisted on playing him out of position and exposing him to criticism.
JW: It is great to have Darcy Graham back fit and in the squad, he always makes yards and is one of the most dangerous players going forward. If our forwards get quick ball we have a very potent back line.
In the forwards, I would love to see Ben Muncaster and Freddy Douglas on the pitch at some point. Ben has had some big impacts for Edinburgh and physically looks suited to international rugby.
I watched Freddy play for the Under-20’s last year in the JRWC and he stood out as one to watch, although he has yet to play for Edinburgh and may just be in the squad for experience, he could be a bolter.
AN: It’s great to see Darcy Graham back in he squad but he has huge competition from the like of Kyle Rowe and Arran Read, not to mention Duhan van der Merve. Tom Jordan has hugely impressed me at Glasgow so I’m really keen to see him make the step up to international rugby. I also hope Jamie Dobie gets a good run as I like him a lot and he deserves some good game time.
What would constitute a successful series for the Scots?
CC: It has to be three wins from four. Anything else would be a massive disappointment. Fiji can be a dangerous proposition on their day. They beat England at Twickenham last year and also reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, beating Australia along the way. But, on home soil at Murrayfield, Scotland should be putting them away.
It will the probably be a cricket score against Portugal, to the point that you have to question the value of playing opposition like that in the Autumn Tests. I also fully expect Scotland to beat Australia. The Wallabies are a shadow of the force they used to be. They have now slipped down to an all-time low of 10th in the world rankings and have finished bottom of the table in each of the past two seasons in the Rugby Championship. The big test will come against world champions South Africa. They will be a tough nut to crack, but Scotland should win the other three games.
JW: You can look at this in a few different ways. Increasing the depth of the squad would be on my list, continuing to play an attractive attacking game with an aggressive defence is also key and, as I mentioned earlier, deepening the leadership pool will be a real positive.
Having said all of that, the thing that really matters is the number of wins we manage and getting into the habit of winning after an easier summer compared to the other Six Nations countries. We should be targeting three victories and being competitive against the Boks and staying with them for the whole match. If we can pull off all four we will go into the Six Nations full of confidence.
AN: I think this is quite obvious this year. Three wins against Fiji, Portugal and Australia and a really competitive game against South Africa. Anything more than three wins would be incredible with how good and physical South Africa are but anything less than three wins would be deemed a failure.
